Judicial reform forging ahead

Law graduates in Shanghai are now facing tougher hurdles when pursuing a career as a judge after new policies require they work as a judge or procurator assistant first.

As part of judicial reform efforts, the city assigned the first batch of judge and procurator assistants in September. Ye Yangtian, a 24 year old working with the People's Procuratorate of Xuhui District, was among them.

Under the instruction of procurators, Ye is now in charge of interviewing suspects, meeting with lawyers, investigating lawsuits, preparing reference documents and other work assigned by the procurators.

"Unlike a clerk, a procurator's assistant is more challenging and demanding," Ye said.

It gives him the opportunity to accumulate more experience on judicial procedures, giving him full preparation to become a competent procurator, he said.

The assistant program was developed in Shanghai, one of the six provincial-level pilot regions for China's judicial reform, together with provinces of Guangdong, Jilin, Hubei, Hainan and Qinghai.

These regions, located in different areas and representing different economic development levels, have been chosen to pilot reforms aimed at improving management of judicial staff and injecting more accountability into the system, according to the office in charge of judicial reforms of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee.

The Shanghai program requires judges, procurators, assistants and administrative staff account for 33, 52 and 15 percent of the total judicial staff respectively. The limits are aimed to sort management of judicial staff. According to the program, all judges and procurators will be selected from assistants.

Chen Xu, chief procurator with the People's Procuratorate of Shanghai Municipality, said judicial workers who could have become a procurator in his 20s in the past will now have to work until 35 years old to get that position.

"Like being a doctor, knowledge learned from textbooks is far from enough. Clinical practice is extremely important," he said.

Wang Xinfang, head of the Second Intermediate People's Court of Shanghai Municipality, said court assistants will help with much of the more mundane work enabling judges to concentrate on determining the outcome of lawsuits and ultimately improve the quality and efficiency of judicial trials.

The communique released after the fourth plenary session of the 18th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee last month said China will improve the system in which judicial powers are exercised and strengthen supervision over judicial activities.

In the communique, the CPC also pledged to establish cross-region courts and procurators, which is believed to reduce the interference of local governments on administrative litigation cases.

In Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture of Jilin Province, another pilot judicial reform region, administrative litigation cases in connection with local governments are assigned to courts in nearby regions by a higher-jurisdiction-level court.

"We chose to be procurators bearing the pursuit of judicial justice. The judicial reform put forward at the fourth plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee allowed us to have more courage to work independently and free from government influence," said Li Yuyu, a procurator with the People's Procuratorate of Erdao District in the provincial capital of Changchun.